Advantages of Coaxial Cable

1. The data transmission characteristics of

coaxial cable are better than twisted-pair
cable.
2. It can be used for broadband transmission.
 Disadvantages of Coaxial Cable
1. Expensive compared to twisted pair cables.
2. The coaxial cables are not compatible with
twisted pair cables.
 Optical Fiber Cable
The optical fiber cable consist of three pieces
(i) The core i.e. the glass or plastic through
which the light travels.
(ii) The cladding which is a covering of the core
that reflect the light back to the core.
(iii) Protective coating which protects the fiber

cable from hostile environment.

 Advantages of Optical Fiber
Cable
1. It is immune to noise in any form.
2. It guarantees secure transmission.
3. It can be used for broadband transmission.
Disadvantages of Optical Fiber
Cable
1. Installation problem.
2. They are the most expensive of all the
cables.
3. Connection losses are common problems.
 Microwave
The microwave transmission consist of a
transmitter , receiver and the atmosphere. In
microwave communication antennas are
mounted on towers to send a beam to other
antennas. The higher the tower, the greater the
range.
 Advantages
1. It offers ease of communication.
2. It proves cheaper than laying cables.
 Disadvantages
1. It is an insecure communication.
2. Bandwidth allocation is extremely limited.
3. It is susceptible to weather effects like rain ,
thunder storms etc.
 Radio Wave
The transmission making use of radio
frequencies is termed as radio-wave
transmission. An radio setup has two parts

1. The transmitter
2. The receiver
 Radio Wave
The transmitter take message, encode it onto a
sine wave and transmits it with radio waves.
The receiver receives the radio waves and
decodes the message from the sine waves.
Both the transmitter and receiver use
antennas to radiate and capture the radio
signal.
 Advantages of Radio Wave
1. It offers mobility.
2. It proves cheaper than laying cables.
3. It offer ease of communication.
 Disadvantages of Radio Wave
1. It is an insecure communication.
2. It is susceptible to weather effects like rain ,
thunder storms etc.
 Satellite
In satellite communication the earth station
consist of a satellite dish that function as an
antenna and communication equipment to
transmit and receive data from satellite passing
overhead.
 Advantages of satellite
1. The area coverage through satellite
transmission is quite large.
2. The laying and maintenance of
intercontinental traffic cable is difficult and
expensive and that is where satellite proves
to be the most attractive.
 Disadvantages of satellite
1. Overcrowding of available bandwidths due
to low antenna gains.
2. The high investment cost and insurance cost.
 Infrared
This type of transmission uses infrared light to
send data. E.g. TV remotes, wireless speakers
etc.
 Bluetooth
'Bluetooth' is a open wireless technology
standard for exchanging data over short
distances (using short length radio waves)
from fixed and mobile devices, creating
personal area networks (PANs) with high
levels of security. It uses unused frequency
bandwidth of 2.45 GHz.
 Personal Area Network (PAN)
It refers to a small network of communication
capable devices within range of an individual
concerns. This range is typically upto 10
meters. E.g. When you connect two cell
phones or laptop with cell phones it forms
PAN.
 Network Interface Unit (NIU)
A Network Interface Unit is an interpreter that
helps establish communication between the
server & workstations.

MAC (Media Access Control) : The NIC

manufacture assigns a unique physical address
to each NIC card. This physical address is
known as MAC address.
A MAC address refers to the physical address
with each byte separated by a colon. E.g. A
sample MAC address could be
10 : B5 : 03: 63 : 2E: FC
 IP address
Each network device on a TCP/IP network needs
to have a unique address on the network. This
unique address on a TCP/IP network is the IP
address. IP address can be thought of as unique
series of numbers separated by four dots
uniquely identifying a computer on the
network. E.g. an IP address in dotted decimal
form
216.27.61.137